Black and Blue
by Shiori Hitohana
Summary: Join our hero Duo in an epic search for a real, working, pure...black pen! A short story.


Konnichiwa! I hope you enjoy this story, and that it makes you laugh.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or anything else.

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Duo sat, looking at the paper with bored violet eyes, one hand playing with his braid, the other twiddling a pen. He glanced at the clock, noting how only a few seconds had past since he had last looked. The former Gundam Pilot growled in frustration, and at the moment he was about to give up, inspiration hit him. Duo put the pen to the paper, prepared to let his glorious idea unfurl on the paper… and growled again, realizing that the pen had blue ink.

"Stupid blue ink…I want BLACK!"

He stood up, leaving the blue pen where it was, and walked towards the door. After opening it, he paused, then doubled back and picked up the offending pen. With a sadistic smirk, he threw it with a mighty hurl into the trash can.

"Who needs blue ink anyway? What type of fool invented blue ink?" Duo asked himself as he left his room, beginning his search of the Winner Mansion for a black pen.

First stop, Wu Fei's room. He opened the door cautiously, after leaning against it and hearing nothing. The room was dark and empty. Smirking, Duo made his way to Wu Fei's desk,

He picked up the first pen, making a mark on the sheet of clean notebook paper lying on the desk. He squinted in the poor light. BLUE! He growled, taking pen after pen out of the can until it was empty.

"Why aren't there any black pens…" He whined pitifully. He heard footsteps approaching, but didn't think on it for a moment, until…

"What do you think you're doing in my room, Maxwell?" Wu Fei's voice was clearly heard, the irritation clearly vibrating in it, and the lights turned on.

Duo smiled sheepishly, grabbed the sheet of notebook paper, and made a run for it. He heard something suspiciously like metal as Wu Fei shouted, and so Duo ran even faster. Noting an open door, he quickly entered, closed, and locked the door. He sighed, back against the door as he heard Wu Fei grumbling as he left.

Glancing around, Duo realized he was in Trowa's room. He shrugged, then walked over to Trowa's desk. Once again, he could only try all the pens on the sheet of notebook paper, and note once more…

"ALL THESE PENS ARE STINKIN' BLUE!"

Duo unlocked the door and exited, not bothering to put the pens back. He opened the next door he had passed in his run; Heero's room. Heero was inside, but didn't say anything as he glanced at Duo, then back to his laptop. Duo took this as consent, and quickly searched for any black pens. None.

Fuming, he left Heero's room, not bothering to say anything to Heero. He made his way towards the main hall, the central room of the house. Quatre's room. Duo entered quietly, but this room was also empty. He checked the pens, then whined again.

"Why are all the pens in the house blue?" He walked slowly down the hall as he spoke to himself. "Isn't there one black pen in the house anymore? What, does the Winner family only buy blue pens?"

He scoffed at that, proceeding to search the library, computer hall, and even the training room for any black pens. Of course, in these places, there were absolutely none. He then carried on to closets, servants' quarters, the living room, and the kitchen.

Of all the places, the kitchen had to be the one. He pounced upon the pen, looking at its black lid with pride.

"I knew I'd find a black pen!" He gloated, preparing to mark the notebook paper, just to be sure. He froze, then made frenzied marks on his notebook paper.

"NOOOOOO!" He shouted, looking at all the places he'd 'marked'. The pen had no ink. Not even a trace.

At his shout, Quatre came running, making it in time to see Duo frantically marking the paper again.

"Duo, what are you doing?" Quatre asked, restraining his comrade.

"No ink, no ink…" Duo moaned.

Quatre looked at him oddly. "Then get another pen," He stated, releasing Duo.

"Nooo!" Duo moaned again, causing Quatre to become even more worried for his comrade.

"Why not?"

"There aren't any black pens left." Duo stated sadly, tears forming at the corners of violet eyes.

Quatre stared at him for a moment, then began laughing, almost hysterically.

Duo glared angrily. "IT'S NOT FUNNY! Blue pens aren't even worth anything. I am not writing my report in blue ink!"

Quatre calmed, smiling. "Okay, okay, Duo. It's just funny that you decided this today, when just yesterday…"

"Just yesterday what, Quatre?" Duo asked suspiciously.

"They were all used up just yesterday. It was late, and Heero had just finished his report. He tried to print it, and found there was no black ink left. So he went from room to room, gathering the black pens, then he cut them open and poured them into the black ink canister. So, we don't have any black pens anymore."

Duo sank to the floor in despair. "What am I going to do without a black pen?"

"Duo? Is that you?"

Duo opened his eyes, which he had closed in his despair. "Hilde?"

Hilde looked at him oddly, and he remembered he was on his knees on the kitchen floor. He quickly rose, dusting himself off. "Where have you been, Hilde? I haven't seen you all day."

Hilde smiled. "Since Heero decided to use all the black ink last night, I went out to buy some more. You wouldn't believe the trouble I had getting enough to keep everyone in the Winner mansion happy."

Duo looked at Quatre, then at Hilde. "No…you're the one who wouldn't believe." With that, he grabbed the bag from her, tore open a package of black pens, scattering them everywhere, and placed a black pen to his face.

"Ah…I will never be without a black pen again…" Duo smiled, not noticing Quatre's laughter and Hilde's quizzical look. Duo ran upstairs and sat down again at his desk, looking at the sheet with the blue ink on it with disgust before throwing it away. He froze suddenly.

"AH! NOW I DON'T REMEMBER WHAT I WAS GOING TO WRITE!"


End file.
